Chiara Papetti, Massimiliano Babbucci, Agnes Dettai, Andrea Basso, Magnus Lucassen, Lars Harms, Celine Bonillo, Franz Maximilian Heindler, Tomaso Patarnello, Enrico Negrisolo. (2021). Not Frozen in the Ice: Large and Dynamic Rearrangements in the Mitochondrial Genomes of the Antarctic Fish (Vol. 13).
Abstract: The vertebrate mitochondrial genomes generally present a typical gene order. Exceptions are uncommon and important to study the genetic mechanisms of gene order rearrangements and their consequences on phylogenetic output and mitochondrial function. Antarctic notothenioid fish carry some peculiar rearrangements of the mitochondrial gene order. In this first systematic study of 28 species, we analyzed known and undescribed mitochondrial genome rearrangements for a total of eight different gene orders within the notothenioid fish. Our reconstructions suggest that transpositions, duplications, and inversion of multiple genes are the most likely mechanisms of rearrangement in notothenioid mitochondrial genomes. In Trematominae, we documented an extremely rare inversion of a large genomic segment of 5,300?bp that partially affected the gene compositional bias but not the phylogenetic output. The genomic region delimited by nad5 and trnF, close to the area of the Control Region, was identified as the hot spot of variation in Antarctic fish mitochondrial genomes. Analyzing the sequence of several intergenic spacers and mapping the arrangements on a newly generated phylogeny showed that the entire history of the Antarctic notothenioids is characterized by multiple, relatively rapid, events of disruption of the gene order. We hypothesized that a pre-existing genomic flexibility of the ancestor of the Antarctic notothenioids may have generated a precondition for gene order rearrangement, and the pressure of purifying selection could have worked for a rapid restoration of the mitochondrial functionality and compactness after each event of rearrangement.
Programme: 1124
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Anika Immer, Thomas Merkling, Olivier Chastel, Scott A. Hatch, Etienne Danchin, Pierrick Blanchard, Sarah Leclaire. (2021). Spying on your neighbours? Social information affects timing of breeding and stress hormone levels in a colonial seabird (Vol. 35).
Abstract: A good overlap between offspring energetic requirements and availability of resources is required for successful reproduction. Accordingly, individuals from numerous species fine-tune their timing of breeding by integrating cues that predict environmental conditions during the offspring period. Besides acquiring information from their direct interaction with the environment (personal information), individuals can integrate information by observing the behaviours or performance of others (social information). The use of social information is often beneficial because the accumulated knowledge of conspecifics may represent a source of information more reliable than the intrinsically more limited personal information. However, although social information constitutes the major source of information in a wide range of contexts, studies investigating its use in the context of timing of breeding are scarce. We investigated whether black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) used social information to adjust the timing of egg-laying. We manipulated social information using a food-supplementation experiment, known to advance kittiwakes' reproductive phenology. We expected food-supplemented and unsupplemented pairs to delay and advance, respectively, their timing of laying when surrounded by a majority of neighbours from the opposite food-treatment. However, both unsupplemented and food-supplemented kittiwakes delayed egg-laying when surrounded by a higher proportion of neighbours from the opposite food-treatment. This result shows that kittiwakes use social information to time egg-laying, but that it is not used to match the seasonal peak of food availability. We suggest that when social and personal cues give contradictory environmental information, individuals may benefit from delaying laying to gather more information to make better decisions about investment into eggs. Further, we explored a potential proximate mechanism for the pattern we report. We show that baseline corticosterone, known to mediate reproductive decisions, was lower in unsupplemented females facing a higher proportion of food-supplemented neighbours. Altogether, our results suggest that to fine-tune their timing of laying, kittiwakes use complex decision-making processes in which social and personal information interplay.
Programme: 1162
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. (2021). Preface to the Focus Section on European Seismic Networks and Associated Services and Products (Vol. 92).
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. (2021). (Vol. 103).
Keywords: Antarctica Asteroidea benthos biometric measurements Echinodermata elemental contents invertebrates marine ecosystems sea stars Southern Ocean stable isotopes subantarctic Islands
Programme: 1044
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. (2021). Constraining 20th-Century Sea-Level Rise in the South Atlantic Ocean (Vol. 126).
Keywords: data rescue salt-marsh proxies sea-level changes South Atlantic tide gauges
Programme: 688
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Ryo Okuwaki, Stephen P. Hicks, Timothy J. Craig, Wenyuan Fan, Saskia Goes, Tim J. Wright, Yuji Yagi. (2021). Illuminating a Contorted Slab With a Complex Intraslab Rupture Evolution During the 2021 Mw 7.3 East Cape, New Zealand Earthquake (Vol. 48).
Abstract: The state-of-stress within subducting oceanic plates controls rupture processes of deep intraslab earthquakes. However, little is known about how the large-scale plate geometry and the stress regime relate to the physical nature of the deep intraslab earthquakes. Here we find, by using globally and locally observed seismic records, that the moment magnitude 7.3 2021 East Cape, New Zealand earthquake was driven by a combination of shallow trench-normal extension and unexpectedly, deep trench-parallel compression. We find multiple rupture episodes comprising a mixture of reverse, strike-slip, and normal faulting. Reverse faulting due to the trench-parallel compression is unexpected given the apparent subduction direction, so we require a differential buoyancy-driven stress rotation, which contorts the slab near the edge of the Hikurangi plateau. Our finding highlights that buoyant features in subducting plates may cause diverse rupture behavior of intraslab earthquakes due to the resulting heterogeneous stress state within slabs.
Keywords: earthquake rupture finite-fault inversion Hikurangi intraslab earthquakes slab geometry source imaging
Programme: 133
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. (2021). Fifty million years of beetle evolution along the Antarctic Polar Front (Vol. 118).
Keywords: Antarctica herbivory island biogeography paleoclimate species radiation
Programme: 136
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Benjamin Pohl, Vincent Favier, Jonathan Wille, Danielle G Udy, Tessa R Vance, Julien Pergaud, Niels Dutrievoz, Juliette Blanchet, Christoph Kittel, Charles Amory, Gerhard Krinner, Francis Codron. (2021). Relationship Between Weather Regimes and Atmospheric Rivers in East Antarctica (Vol. 126).
Keywords: atmospheric rivers East Antarctica snowfall amounts temperature anomalies weather regimes
Programme: 411
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. (2021). Untangling local and remote influences in two major petrel habitats in the oligotrophic Southern Ocean (Vol. 27).
Abstract: Ocean circulation connects geographically distinct ecosystems across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales via exchanges of physical and biogeochemical properties. Remote oceanographic processes can be especially important for ecosystems in the Southern Ocean, where the Antarctic Circumpolar Current transports properties across ocean basins through both advection and mixing. Recent tracking studies have indicated the existence of two large-scale, open ocean habitats in the Southern Ocean used by grey petrels (Procellaria cinerea) from two populations (i.e., Kerguelen and Antipodes islands) during their nonbreeding season for extended periods during austral summer (i.e., October to February). In this work, we use a novel combination of large-scale oceanographic observations, surface drifter data, satellite-derived primary productivity, numerical adjoint sensitivity experiments, and output from a biogeochemical state estimate to examine local and remote influences on these grey petrel habitats. Our aim is to understand the oceanographic features that control these isolated foraging areas and to evaluate their ecological value as oligotrophic open ocean habitats. We estimate the minimum local primary productivity required to support these populations to be much <1% of the estimated local primary productivity. The region in the southeast Indian Ocean used by the birds from Kerguelen is connected by circulation to the productive Kerguelen shelf. In contrast, the region in the south-central Pacific Ocean used by seabirds from the Antipodes is relatively isolated suggesting it is more influenced by local factors or the cumulative effects of many seasonal cycles. This work exemplifies the potential use of predator distributions and oceanographic data to highlight areas of the open ocean that may be more dynamic and productive than previously thought. Our results highlight the need to consider advective connections between ecosystems in the Southern Ocean and to re-evaluate the ecological relevance of oligotrophic Southern Ocean regions from a conservation perspective.
Keywords: Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) biogeography conservation grey petrels high seas hotspot open ocean primary productivity Procellaria cinerea seabirds
Programme: 109
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. (2021). Terrestrial macro-arthropods of the sub-Antarctic islands of Possession (Crozet Archipelago) and Kerguelen: inventory of native and non-native species (Vol. 43).
Abstract: The sub-Antarctic islands of the Southern Ocean harbor biogeographically peculiar biotas which are under threat from climate change, biological invasions and their interactions. Understanding both the indigenous and changing non-indigenous components of these islands is essential for the conservation and management of their biotas. Based on several years of systematic sampling, we present an updated list of terrestrial, free-living macro-invertebrates (insects and spiders) present on the islands of Possession (Crozet Archipelago) and Kerguelen. Ninety-four species were recorded in total on both islands. Forty-one are strictly endemic to one of the two islands, 16 are endemic to the South Indian Ocean Province, and only three were recorded on other sub-Antarctic islands. Beetles and more particularly weevils are the most characteristic group of the fauna of these islands: they include 35 species of which 89% are native and 66% are endemic. One third of the species (30 of 94) are non-indigenous species now naturalized. We discuss these results in terms of biogeography, ecological disharmony and impact of biological invasions.
Programme: 136
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